Grandma’s Marathon – June 17, 2023 – 3:21:38
My first marathon didn’t go exactly how I planned. While this was slightly disappointing, I was confident I had a lot of room for improvement and could significantly improve my time. Training for the Twin Cities Marathon had only increased my love of running so within about a week of having completed my first marathon, I signed up for my second. It was mid-October at this point, and my next marathon was mid-June, so this gave me eight months to fully recover and then get back into marathon shape by June.
Periodization
My daughter had also been into running for a while by this time and bought my son Nick Symmonds’ book How to be a Better Runner for his birthday. I ended up reading it one day (it’s an easy read) and it introduced me to the concept of periodization. Periodization is the idea that you should structure your year of running such that you have an off-season where you run less mileage generally at an easier effort followed by a time where you build your mileage slowly while maybe mixing in some higher intensity runs before you enter a period of higher mileage and intensity. You may have one or more of these higher intensity training blocks throughout the season with the goal of hitting peak fitness and performance for a goal race or, for more competitive runners, multiple races towards the end of the season.
I tried to apply this concept to my training over the winter, being sure not to run too many miles and instead focusing on building strength in the weight room and staying diligent about my physical therapy. Immediately following the marathon, I took a full week off from running and then started to build back very slowly. I ran my easy runs at a 10-11 minute/mile pace, which was slower than I had run in my adult life. This was the pace that I could run without pain. Some runs were as short as two miles. During this time, I started developing some inner ankle pain that I think might have been posterial tibial tendonitis. I don’t remember how or why, but likely my low volume of running in combination with my strength training and PT helped naturally resolve this. I also had changed up my shoe rotation, which also could have contributed.
Run the Tangents
At the end of October, I ran a Halloween 5k with my son which wasn’t an all out effort, but I felt pretty good after that race and remember not feeling any significant pain. On Thanksgiving I ran a 5k with the intention of seeing how I felt running a race at an all-out effort and I ended up running a PR of 20:32 for 5k. Interestingly, my Garmin watch had said I had covered that distance in under 20 minutes. This was partially because the race was in downtown Minneapolis and the GPS likely wasn’t that accurate, but also I don’t think I ran a very good line. This is when I first starting thinking about the importance of running the tangents. This means taking the shortest route through the course. This is also how courses are officially measured so if you don’t do this, you’ll end up running quite a bit more than the actual distance of the race. For my first marathon based on my watch I ran almost an extra half mile. I took a terrible line through this course. It was this 5k that encouraged me to always take a few minutes to study the race route a day or two before the race and picture in my mind which sides of the street I should be on at different points on the course depending on the curves and turns.
Slowly build a solid base of running
Over the winter, I continued to build my mileage, mostly preferring easy running. I adhered to the widely followed rule of not increasing mileage by more than 10 percent per week. By January, I was running 25-30 miles per week, which was far less than the 65 miles per week I had peaked at for my first marathon. (That of course had been too much for me too soon, since I ended up injured.) I continued building miles and decided to start my “official” training block towards the end of February.
By this time, my long runs were around 14-15 miles and took slightly over two hours. My goal was to complete a two-hour run at least every week from this point on, with the idea that the number of two-hour runs in your training block being a good predictor of faster marathon times. This is an idea I picked up from Seth James DeMoor’s YouTube channel. Towards the peak of my training block, I was also doing a mid-week two-hour run in the 14-15 mile range. This mid-week run I often did without any gels and not a ton of water because I’d just stop at a drinking fountain around the halfway point. The thought was to try to get myself more fat-adapted, but I’ve started to do more of my runs fully fueled to ensure I maintain my form and focus and also to prevent injury.
Using the treadmill to control effort
That winter had been especially icy, so running outside was a challenge. I fell at least twice, and they were the types of falls where I completely lost my feet from under me and my body was parallel to the ground before crashing onto the ice below. A couple of falls like this were enough for me not to want to chance it, so I chose to do most of my running at the gym on a treadmill until about mid to late April by which time most of the snow and ice had melted. I was worried that doing so much of my running on a treadmill would end up negatively affecting my training, but it was the opposite because I could so easily control my effort in the gym. I live in a fairly hilly area so many of my runs are rolling hills type runs, which can be good from time to time, but every run being like this can be too much. Running on the treadmill meant I could determine how hilly or flat my run was and could control my pace and heart rate very easily. This likely helped prevent over-training. This doesn’t mean I intentionally avoided running outside, but I realized I was doing the same run over and over, and it was taking a toll on my body. Come spring, I also started to explore other places nearby I could drive to where I could start my run that would expose me to other types of terrain.
High training volume at an easy effort
For my first marathon, I peaked around 65 miles/week. This marathon, I peaked a little over 70 miles/week, but this felt much easier because I was doing so many of the miles at an easier effort. Somewhere in the middle of this training block, I read Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 Running. The premise of the book is that you should do the majority of your training, 80 percent, at a very easy effort and the remaining should be at a very, very hard effort. Most amateur runners do most of their running somewhere in the middle of these two extremes which doesn’t allow them to fully recover between runs and in turn push as hard during their harder runs where they gain some of the greatest adaptations. I think it was this book that really solidified the importance of easy running. The other thing I took from this book was using my easy runs to let my body naturally find its most natural and pain-free running gait. Fitzgerald cited a study that looked at the strides of elite runners compared to amateur runners and found that the strides of elite runners varied far more than those of amateur runners. Fitzgerald’s conclusion was that elite runners were more in tune with their bodies and letting their bodies find what felt best and most natural during any point of the race allowed them to run more efficiently. Applying this to my own running has changed my perception of pain from annoying discomfort to an indication that I need to let my body gradually adjust to find a more optimal stride.
The race
Take it easy the day before a big race
For my first marathon, I spent a lot of time getting everything ready for the race, and due to my taper, I was somewhat restless. By the end of the day, my watch showed I had taken over 10k steps. Compared to peak marathon training, this isn’t a big deal, but it was likely more energy than I should have wasted unnecessarily. Grandma’s Marathon was an out of town race for me, so I arrived a day early and picked up my bib two days before the race. Since I had already packed everything I needed for the trip, I didn’t have to think about or organize anything the day before the race. Instead, I ate a solid breakfast and then spent a lot of the day at the pool and hot tub with my son swimming. I’m using the term swimming loosely. The times I was in the pool, I was mostly standing still. Mostly, I was watching my son swim. I also prioritized staying hydrated by making sure I had an electrolyte drink with me throughout the day. By the time nighttime rolled around,I didn’t have much to do or think about so I went to bed early and fell asleep easily.
Eat a decent breakfast
The next day I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and immediately ate breakfast. I wanted to get some breakfast in three hours before the race to give my body time to digest my breakfast. I chose two Scratch Labs Crispy Rice Cakes Salted Maple + Mallow flavor. I also had an eight ounce Gatorade which was probably more sugar than I needed at that point and a couple cups of black coffee which I drink every day. The classic breakfast for a marathon is bagels, but the idea of the dense gluten sitting in my stomach during the race didn’t appeal to me. This came out to a little under 500 calories which is still pretty light for a pre-race breakfast, but was significantly more than I ate before my first marathon. Closer to the race I took a half dose of SwissRX’s Hyperfocus the main ingredient being L-Theanine. L-Theanine is found in green tea and has an synergistic effect with caffeine. Five or six years ago I went through a big matcha green tea phase and found it allowed me to be very focused without the spike of energy and subsequent crash associated with coffee. Unfortunately, it started to irritate my stomach likely because I drinking it in large quantities to try to get similar amounts of caffeine to coffee. I found that Hyperfocus combined with coffee seemed to give me a similar effect to matcha’s so I started taking it before big races or really hard training efforts.
A tried and true fueling strategy
For most, but not all, of my long runs over 15 miles I practiced my fueling strategy for the race which was one Maurten (pronounced Morton) Gel 100 per half hour of running starting after the first 45 minutes. Since I wasn’t sure how long it’d take for me to finish I carried seven gels, but ended up only taking five. I only had a single caffeinated gel with me mainly because I had just run out and was hoping to buy one at the marathon expo. Unfortunately, no one was selling Maurten gels at the expo. I think this ended up working to my advantage because I didn’t end up taking the caffeinated gel until about mile 18 which is around when things start get tough generally. I think this helped me control my pace and stay relaxed until around mile 20 or so at which time I upped my pace. I had also packed pickle juice doctored with another half-dose of Hyperfocus which I ended up taking around the same time as the caffeinated gel. Since I had practiced this all before (minus the pickle juice and Hyperfocus at mile 18), my body was able to handle all the sugar I was putting into it without discomfort. Also, Maurten gels are known to be less nauseating than other popular gels because they employ a Hyrdogel technology that allows them to bypass the stomach and go straight to the small intestines for easier digestion. They are somewhat expensive which is a detractor.
Hydration and strategy
To avoid needing to carry water with me, I decided to make use of the water stops every two miles. For this marathon I decided to slow down and actually stop at the water stops and be sure I got a solid couple gulps of water before I resumed running. This served two purposes:
- This ensured I got a consistent amount of water similar to what I had practiced in my long runs when I carried water with me. Admittedly, I have not mastered the art of drinking water while running and usually end up spilling a significant amount of it on me any time I try. For shorter races this doesn’t matter since you arguably don’t even need water depending on the distance of the race and the pace you can run it. For a marathon, however, getting the right amount of fluids and electrolytes is critical. I figured between the gels and pickle juice I would have enough electrolytes to not need any additional. I did drink a little Powerade at one water stop, but other than that relied on the sodium in my gels and pickle juice.
- Stopping gave my legs a little break every two miles. Sure I lost a little ground during my water breaks, but this was easy to make up over the next two miles and helped stave off fatigue. This is kind of a variation of Jeff Galloway’s run/walk training and race strategy, but there is no question in my mind this benefited me. Galloway argues that for the vast majority of runners building in periodic breaks from running will help you go faster. This seemed to be the case for me.
Negative splits for a fast finish
Because I had bonked during my first marathon, I wanted to make sure I didn’t go out too fast. I lined up 10-12 rows of people behind the 3:30 finish pace group. When the race started I slowly caught that group by mile 10 or so. I stayed with the group for a little while, but then just naturally let myself pass the group as I felt able. My heart rate was staying right in the middle of my zone 3 heart rate for the first 18-20 miles of the race. The water stop breaks gave me a few seconds to let my heart rate fall and made sure I wasn’t letting my heart rate creep up too fast. The last 10k of the race I upped my pace significantly running closer to 7:15-7:00 minute mile pace which put me squarely in my zone 4 heart rate. Also, by the end of the race I ran through the water stops grabbing water without stopping because I was feeling strong and knew the finish was near. I was also flying by people which encouraged me to go faster. The first half I ran in 1:41:13. The second half I ran in 1:40:25. I ended up running negative splits throughout most of the race.
Easier recovery
After the race, I grabbed a chocolate milk ate a banana and found my family. We took some pictures then walked around for an hour or two. I got a burger and fries for dinner that night and slept fine, but not great. I think all the walking after the race helped me recover much faster and the next day I was hardly even sore the next day. This was a big difference from my first marathon after which I could hardly walk the next day. In most ways second marathon was a much better experience than the first.
The next marathon
I was so close to breaking 3:20. This became the new goal time for my next marathon which would automatically qualify me for the Chicago Marathon. This is what I was hoping would be my first major marathon. For my third marathon, the goal was clear and seemingly within reach. Break 3:20.